The Mavs may be the big winners and the Heat the big losers, but it’s the little things that count. For the last time of the 2011-12 season, here are your Game 6 winners and losers. Read More »

When it was all said and done, the Dallas Mavericks grew while the Miami Heat wilted, going from underdog to favorite led by a cold-blooded monster in Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavs beat the Heat in six games because as a team filled with players abandoned and lost in the seas of NBA roster movement, one thing became clear: all of them were hungry.

But of course, blame will fall on Miami’s preseason introduction ceremony of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, and mostly on King James himself. Yet, it isn’t that simple. Miami had one season of cohesion to Dallas’ years of scarring playoff losses on Nowitzki’s mind. Read More »

There’s nothing better than pure, unadulterated bliss.

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Even though Dallas went home with the trophy, you have to give credit where credit is due. And this block was just nasty.

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It’s almost kind of cheesy, almost too perfect. When the Mavericks and Heat were set to face off, the storylines were clear. There were the good guys with their ring-less vets, and their “we’re not completely sure how they keep winning, but they keep doing it” tone, the dudes whose whole is far greater than the sum of their parts. And there were the villains with all the talent in the world, with as Brendan Haywood put it: “three of the best four players in the series,” with all the collective enmity of a world slighted by their perceived arrogance. Read More »

The Dallas Mavericks are your 2010-11 NBA Champions after beating the Miami Heat 105-95 last night in Florida. The Mavs capitalized on Miami’s poor free throw shooting and turnovers in the second half, while knocking down big shot after big shot to seal the first championship in franchise history.

Dirk Nowitzki struggled for much of the game, going 9-27 from the field to finish with 21 points, but he knocked down multiple huge jumpers down the stretch, including two baskets with less than a minute to go to effectively seal the deal for his team. After averaging more than 26 points and almost 10 boards per game throughout the series, Dirk was named series MVP. Read More »

Closing: it’s the most difficult part of any endeavor, whether it’s at the bar, in business or in the NBA Finals. The Mavs have an opportunity to close out the beleaguered Miami Heat in six games if they can take their talents back to South Beach and steal one of the next two games. Of course, it won’t be easy – closing never is – but here are three keys that will help Dallas go home happy tonight. Read More »

I thought LeBron might want to have no regard for human life if he wanted the Miami Heat to win Game 5. He didn’t do that, shooting only two free throws and looking helpless while guarding Jason Terry. Sure, a triple-double is nice, but now the Heat are on the brink of elimination and in search of answers. Read More »

You would think in the middle of the NBA Finals in a matchup between two veteran teams, we wouldn’t have to be dealing with kiddy stuff. But we are. And now Dirk, all 32 years of him, is speaking on it. After Nowitzki’s bout with a high fever earlier in the series, cameras caught D-Wade and LeBron poking fun at him, fake coughing and playing it up to suggest that perhaps Dirk was faking his sickness. It came back to the German and he had this to say to reporters after practice: “I just thought it was a little childish, a little ignorant. I’ve been in this league for 13 years. I’ve never faked an injury or illness.” Read More »

There’s only so long an NBA career can last and LeBron James has officially reached a crossroads. Yes, he’s only 26 years old and in his eighth season, but that’s almost a negative. How’s this all still going on? 11 points through 60 fourth-quarter minutes in the Finals. A lower scoring average than Chris Bosh in the biggest series of your career. Being thoroughly dominated and overshadowed by Dirk Nowitzki. Being outscored in a game by DeShawn Stevenson. Being guarded often in the second half of two games by a 38-year-old, 6-4 point guard and doing NOTHING about it. Read More »